n. a line of ancestors; descent; lineage; register or record of a line of ancestors
E.g. But, on both his mother's and his father's side there is nothing that even comes close to the kind of pedigree that qualifies as American elite.
n. skin of a beast with the hair on; raw or undressed hides; skin preserved with the hairy or woolly covering on it
E.g. Her hat is made of at least one beaver pelt, I dislike this style, or any style of fur.
a. deeply, often dreamily thoughtful; engaged in serious thought or reflection; contemplative
E.g. The pensive lover gazed at the portrait of his beloved and deeply sighed.
n. a place high up; an elevated place serving as a seat
E.g. Repeated attempts to rescue him failed because of snow storms and avalanches but on Wednesday two Pakistani military helicopters managed to fly close enough to his perch for one of them to dangle a line to him.
n. lasting indefinitely long time; suggesting self-renewal; remaining active throughout all the time
E.g. These plants are hardy perennial and will bloom for many years.
n. one pretending to perfection, especially, one pretending to moral perfection; one who believes that person should be prefect in life
E.g. My surgeon had a national reputation and was known as a perfectionist.
a. done routinely and with little interest or care; acting with indifference; showing little interest or care
E.g. I introduced myself, and at my name his perfunctory manner changed; I knew he heard me before.
a. full of, attended with, or involving peril; dangerous; hazardous
E.g. Their perilous journey across the ocean has attracted public attention.
a. located in outer boundary; unimportant; auxiliary
E.g. We lived, not in central London, but in one of those peripheral suburbs that spring up on the outskirts of a great city.
n. edge, especially of a round surface; surface of a solid; circumference
E.g. He sensed that there was something just beyond the periphery of his vision.
a. liable to perish; subject to destruction or death or decay
E.g. Travel tickets are like perishable goods: If a company doesn't sell seats, then they lose them.
v. be responsible for; commit; do execute or perform, generally in bad sense
E.g. Only an insane person could perpetrate such a horrible crime.
v. make something last; preserve from extinction
E.g. Some critics attack The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because they believe Twain's book to perpetuate a false image of Blacks in this country.
v. pursue in a manner to injure, grieve, or afflict; beset with cruelty or malignity; harass; annoy
E.g. They persecute us with various delicate questions this morning.
a. pleasing in personality or appearance; attractive
E.g. So showing good moral standards and being personable is a great start.
n. process of the sweat glands of skin secreting a salty fluid
E.g. She found three things essential for success in weight loss: diet, exercise, and perspiration.
v. read or examine, typically with great care
E.g. After the conflagration that burned down her house, Joan closely began to peruse her home insurance policy to discover exactly what benefits her coverage provided her.
n. action of perverting someone or something; humiliation; debasement; instance of abnormal activity
E.g. What we once called a perversion, we now call it an alternative lifestyle.
v. trouble; disturb; annoy; harass with petty vexations
E.g. I am so sorry to pester you but this is a project for orphans.
n. person who loves mankind in general; very generous person or institution
E.g. In his role as philanthropist and public benefactor, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., donated millions to charity; as an individual, however, he was a tight-fisted old man.
n. narrow-minded person, uncultured and exclusively interested in material gain
E.g. We need more men of culture and enlightenment; we needn't any philistine among us.
n. open square in a European town, especially an Italian town
E.g. A boy is flying a kite in the piazza.
a. having sections or patches colored differently and usually brightly; multicolored
E.g. The pied piper of Hamelin got his name from the multicolored clothing he wore.
n. substance used as coloring; dry coloring matter
E.g. Van Gogh mixed more than one pigment with linseed oil to create his paints.
v. rob of goods by force, especially in time of war; plunder; take as spoils
E.g. The enemy planned to pillage the quiet village and leave it in ruins.
n. peak; tall pointed formation, such as mountain peak
E.g. We could see the morning sunlight illuminate the pinnacle while the rest of the mountain lay in shadow.
n. crime of pirate; robbery committed at sea; unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted or patented material
E.g. Decreasing piracy is simple, give the users the best product possible at a good price and people will pay.
a. precisely meaningful; forceful and brief
E.g. While other girls might have gone on and on about how un-cool Elton was, Liz summed it up in one pithy remark: "He's bogus!"
n. very small portion or allowance assigned, whether of food or money
E.g. He could not live on the pittance he received as a pension and had to look for an additional source of revenue.
n. axis; focus; center
E.g. Throw stiff-armed from the shoulder, like there was a pivot there for it to turn on, like a girl; not from the wrist and elbow, with your arm out to one side, like a boy.
v. appease or pacify; bring peace to
E.g. The store manager tried to placate the angry customer, offering to replace the damaged merchandise or to give back her money right away.
n. harmless substance prescribed as a dummy pill
E.g. In a controlled experiment, fifty volunteers were given aspirin tablets; the control group received only placebo ones.
a. peaceful; tranquil; calm or quiet
E.g. After his vacation in this placid section, he felt soothed and rested.
n. braid, especially of hair; flat fold; doubling, as of cloth
E.g. I smiled when I saw her, one plait loose and the other still held in place with a ribbon, proof of all the mischief in the school bus.
n. all the animals and plants, which live at or near surface of waters; collection of small or microscopic organisms
E.g. By killing the sharks we are in turn killing plankton and destroying out atmosphere.
n. highland; upland; relatively flat highland
E.g. In geology and earth science, a plateau is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain.
n. dullness; insipidity of thought; commonplace statement; lack of originality
E.g. In giving advice to his son, old Polonius expressed himself only in same platitude; every word out of his mouth was a commonplace.
a. crude or coarse; unrefined or coarse in nature or manner; common or vulgar
E.g. After five weeks of rigorous studying, the graduate settled in for a weekend of plebeian socializing and television watching.
n. excess; over-fullness in any respect; superabundance
E.g. She offered a plethora of excuses for her shortcomings.
n. feather, especially soft, downy, long, or handsome feather; an ornamental tuft of feathers; token of honor or achievement
E.g. A huge plume is rising from Mount St. Helens, but it's not immediately clear if the volcano is erupting.